The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas, also known as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 dark fantasy film directed by Henry Selick. The film was produced by Tim Burton. The Nightmare Before Christmas is of course popular to watch during the Halloween season because it tells the story of how two holiday worlds, Halloween Town and Christmas Town, meet when Jack Skellington, who, sick of having the same Halloween every year, stumbles upon the portal to Christmas Town. The film was later reissued in "Disney-Digital 3D" from 2006 until 2009. Plot The film opens with the residents of Halloween Town singing "This is Halloween" in celebration of Halloween. After the musical, Jack Skellington, the king of Halloween Town, goes to a graveyard and laments about how he is tired of celebrating the "same old" Halloween every year and that he feels "empty" inside, not knowing that Sally is watching nearby. Jack and his ghost dog Zero take a long walk through the forest and the next morning, Jack stumbles upon multiple trees with different images on them, meant to represent all the different holidays. Jack sees the tree with a Christmas tree image and opens a door in the tree with a knob. After looking into the tree and finding nothing but darkness, Jack is magically sucked into the tree. Jack finds himself in Christmas Town, seemingly impressed by its difference from Halloween Town and begins singing "What's This?" until he accidentally hits his head on a pole. After falling into the snow, Jack sees the shadow of Santa Claus as he utters his traditional "ho, ho, ho" laugh. The residents of Halloween Town are worried about Jack due to his absents, but Jack eventually returns and demands that the Major of Halloween Town organize a town meeting. Dr. Finkelstein, the mad scientist who created Sally, is disgusted at her for frequently poisoning him in order to attend the celebrations in Halloween Town. Sally slips deadly nightshade into Finkelstein's soup and tricks him into thinking it isn't poisoned by using a strainer spoon to taste it herself. With Finkelstein knocked out by the nightshade, Sally attends the meeting. At the meeting, Jack tries to explain the purpose of Christmas in song to the residents of Halloween Town, but they fail to understand its true meaning and compare everything to their traditions of Halloween. Realizing that they aren't going to understand correctly, Jack goes on explaining Santa Claus, who he mispronounces as "Sandy Claws" and portrays as a "fearsome king". Jack himself also has trouble understanding Christmas and becomes obsessed with studying the holiday. He pays a visit to Dr. Finkelstein, who has also recently locked up Sally as punishment for poisoning him, for some equipment he needs for his research on Christmas. Later that night, Sally escapes to deliver Jack a basket of goodies. Hiding out near Jack's house, Sally picks a plant, which turns into a Christmas tree that almost immediately catches fire and disintegrates. The next morning, the residents of Halloween Town begin to worry about Jack, as he has isolated himself in his home to study Christmas. After failing to understand more of the traditions of the holiday, Jack decides he should improve it and announces that he will take over Christmas this year. Jack and the residents of Halloween Town prepare for Christmas and he assigns them all to specific tasks. After the vision of the burning Christmas tree, Sally tries to warn Jack that his Christmas will be disastrous, but Jack ignores her warning and remains confident. Jack decides to take over the role of Santa Claus and assigns Sally to the task of making his Santa Claus suit, much to Sally's hesitation. Jack also assigns three mischievous trick-or-treaters named Lock, Shock, and Barrel to kidnap Santa Claus from Christmas Town and take him back to Halloween Town. The first time, the trio kidnaps the Easter Bunny instead of Santa Claus, much to Jack's surprise, and orders them to go back and get the real Santa Claus. After a montage of months between Halloween Town and Christmas Town go by, the three return, revealing they have kidnapped the real Santa Claus. Jack weakly explains to Santa that he will be doing his job for him this year (and is also surprised that he doesn't actually have claws for hands). Lock, Shock, and Barrel take Santa Claus to Oogie Boogie, despite Jack's warning not to do so. Oogie explains to Santa, in song, that he plans to play a game with Santa's life at stake. When Christmas Eve comes around, Sally tries to stop Jack by creating a thick fog, making Jack's skeleton reindeer unable to see. But, in a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer reference, Jack uses Zero's glowing nose to see and takes to the skies in a sleigh made from a coffin. Sally begins a song, praying that her vision of disaster won't come true. Jack begins giving out presents to children, but they turn out to be macabre things, such as shrunken heads, vampire teddy bears, tree-eating snakes, living wreaths, etc., and terrify the people. Sally, wondering where the real Santa was taken, stumbles upon Oogie's lair and tries to free Santa, but she is eventually captured and held hostage by Oogie. Realizing there is an impostor mocking the image of Santa Claus, the parents of the children who receive the terrifying presents call the police, which eventually leads to a military alert for the impostor. The military opens fire on the sky and eventually shoots down Jack and his sleigh. Seeing this through a portal, the residents of Halloween Town go into mourning in believing that Jack has been destroyed. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Jack survived and he begins singing about how he ruined Christmas for everyone. Eventually, Jack realizes that Christmas isn't his purpose and decides to focus on next year's Halloween. Via a portal in a grave/tomb, Jack goes back to Halloween Town to rescue Santa, only to find that he and Sally are being tortured by Oogie Boogie. Jack sneaks into Oogie's lair, frees them both, and confronts Oogie. Oogie sets off a complex trap of swords and guns to buy time while he escapes, but Jack easily avoids these traps. Jack grabs one of Oogie's threads and beings pulling on it, revealing him to be nothing more than a pile of insects and snakes, which are incinerated. The last surviving bug is squashed by Santa. Jack apologizes to Santa for trying to steal his holiday, and Santa angrily assures him that there's still time to fix things. Back in Halloween Town, Santa passes by in his sleigh and makes it snow. The residents of Halloween Town begin taking part in Christmas-like festivities (ice skating, throwing snowballs, etc.). Jack and Sally sing a short romantic song, having both realized their feelings for each other, as the film closes. Gallery TNBC3D.png|The poser for the film's reissue in 3D. Category:Films